Queerty Publishes Advance Article of a “Disappointing DOMA Ruling”

Predicting doom and gloom – or a publicity stunt for ratings – or a desire to jump the gun for SEO optimization- or an embarrassing mistake?

By Melanie Nathan., June 11, 2013.

In an over zealous attempt to be ahead, popular LGBT blog site QUEERTY, through writer Lisa Keen, jumped the gun by mistakenly hitting “publish” on an article she had prepared in advance, to tell you about the ruling of SCOTUS on the DOMA case. However the much anticipated ruling, which may come down as soon as this week, in fact has yet to be handed down. The publishing of the article, mysterious as it may still be, was touted as a mistake.

Clearly Queerty wants to be the first to tell you the news and I wonder if they have prepared a draft posting for each and every eventuality, or merely a couple based on their own predictions. Whichever it may be Queerty today caused serious confusion and consternation as they hit the PUBLISH button on a draft post they did not intend for you to see.

This is what they wrote:

In a surprise move, the Supreme Court declined to rule on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, saying it was prevented from doing so due to procedural problems in the case.

According to the court, there was no real conflict between the U.S., which appealed the Second Circuit decision striking down DOMA, and Edith Windsor, the lesbian widow who challenged the law. The ___ to ___ majority also ruled that the House’s Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) had no legal standing to bring an appeal, even though it disagreed with the lower court decision.

Perplexed, a reader of OBLOGDEE, wrote to me asking what the hell it meant. I chuckled knowing it was a mistake and feeling the pain of Lester as he wrote explaining to the reader:

Hi,

What you’re seeing is only a draft in anticipation of a story and was not meant to be published and if it was published, was done so in error. Also, please note that the post is not live on our site, nor would we intentionally publish something without the proper supporting information. We’re well aware that the Supreme Court decision has not come down yet, but like you we are waiting with bated breath. We do, however, appreciate your concern and thank you for alerting us to the matter.

Best, Lester

Notwithstanding the perceived pain at the thought of such a mistake,I must say I find it odd that Lester would say “and if it was published” – because all it took was for me to put the link in my address bar hit the enter button and BAM there it was – PUBLISHED! They even provided a link to a non existent – “READ THE FULL DECISION.”

The bad (or would that be “good”) news for Lester, Lisa and Queerty is that the post is still visible online this morning and also has received 56 Facebook likes at the time I took the above screenshot.

THE MISTAKE- and hopefully indeed a mistake:-

UPDATED 8.16 AM: Queerty has finally removed the post that we know was up for at least 6 hours. (it could have been much longer)

Don’t they know you ALWAYS blame the cat? Somehow when walking across the keyboard they can skillfully step right on whichever is the most destructive key be it Enter or Delete or Esc key. Clearly this clever cat can also position the cursor over the Publish button…

I read the Queerty article and nearly jumped out of my skin. Then I noticed that the article had been posted NINE HOURS before any possibility of a Supreme Court announcement. The folks at Queerty need to be a bit more careful, they nearly gave me a coronary.

As someone who is eagerly awaiting this court ruling because it impacts my life and that of my partner in so many ways I read this article yesterday and almost started crying. I then googled for further information and it struck me that the article was a blatant LIE. It disgusts me that this can be called a “mistake” when it impacts hundreds of thousands of peoples’ lives in so many ways. I know mistakes do happen but this so-called journalist should be hauled over the coals for unprofessionalism. This is not some random story. It’s a huge, life changing event for many of us. Shame on Lisa Keen. If she worked for my company I would fire her on the spot.